Agamemnon's Densely-Packed Sorrow in Iliad 10: A Hypertextual Reading of a Homeric Simile

Dué, Casey

doi:10.1515/tcs.2010.015

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…While the longer similes offer "greater explicitness" about the relationship between the simile and the narrative (Minchin 2001.38-42), both short and long similes can be thought of as "condensed" because they can omit-to a greater or smaller degree-traditional elements that would have been obvious to the the singer and his audience steeped in the traditional language of epic (Muellner 1990.66). Like Muellner and others, I understand Homeric epic to be a traditional form of poetry that was composed and transmitted orally and the simile to be a central and traditional component of this medium that must be understood in terms of their connections with other Homeric similes and Homeric poetry as a whole (Muellner 1990 andDué 2010).…”

Section: Corinne Pachementioning

confidence: 93%

Mourning Lions and Penelope’s Revenge

Pache¹

2016

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This article examines the simile that compares Penelope to a lion in Odyssey 4.791-794. Because of its perceived incongruity, the simile has often been passed over even by scholars who study lion similes in Homer. Looking sideways to Iliadic lions and backwards to the Epic of Gilgamesh, I argue that the simile of Odyssey 4 plays a central role in the narrative. Penelope the lion evokes war and its consequences and suggests a kind of mourning that gives rise to the thirst for revenge, which, within the context of the Odyssey, creates the impetus for Odysseus' nostos and Penelope's revenge.

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Section: Corinne Pachementioning

confidence: 93%